T23 hard drive upgrade... worthy or not?

[namezero]

Someone is trying to sell a 40GB Hitachi drive for $60. It's a 5400 RPM drive.

I know the original T23 drive is a 20/30/40GB 4200 RPM drive. Mine is 30GB.

I still have enough space right now. So my question is, will upgrading it to 5400 RPM give me some noticable improvement on general desktop use?

Right now the moment that the hard drive spins a lot is either right after Windows login (probably trying to fill the page file), or when it's loading Mozilla Firefox (even longer than loading Microsoft word, although it's not a fair comparison). I guess if I'm going to use things like virtual PCs or Photoshop, loading time will be even more visible.

Oh currently I've 512MB. It's more than enough for websurfing, and just enough for Photoshop and virtual PCs.

Yes I know it's a vague question. However it would be nice if any of T23 owners who upgraded their hard drive can share their experience (like speed, heat, and battery power consumption, 5400 vs 7200 rpm, etc). Thanks.

[Toe]

To be honest I'm not too sure if there would be an improvement. I've heard from friends who can and can not see the difference in a faster Hard Drive. I have a 30gig in my T23 also, and it's enough space for me. I'm looking into a laptop (2.5") ext hard drive, and building it myself to save money. Since they don't require and AC-Adapter and can fit into your pocket.


I bet someone else can answer you in better detail than I can.


Toe

[lfeagan]

Oh lordy, there is a huge difference between 4200 and 5400 rpm drives. Go dig up some benchmarks like at Toms Hardware or Anandtech or Storage Review. The diff between 7200 and 5400 rpm tends to not be so noticeable. My recommendation is a 40gb 8mb cache hdd at 5400 rpm.